Fieldon, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Fieldon, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Fieldon lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Fieldon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fieldon — the short answer
Fieldon, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 129 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 129 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6b is Fieldon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fieldon's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fieldon
Each reading below is measured for Fieldon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFieldon runs about 218 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFieldon sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Fieldon is in
Fieldon sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fieldon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jersey County.
What Grows in Fieldon
Every plant below cleared Fieldon's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fieldon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Fieldon
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fieldon checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 222 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fieldon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fieldon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- P&N Grocery IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- Fieldon ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Fieldon Quarry No 3Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- IL AMERICAN WATER JERSEYVILLE WTPBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- Wall SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- 7N12W- 3.3dNitrate · 5.0 mi
- Il Dept Of ConservationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Tri County Fs IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- IL AMERICAN-ALTONPFAS · 7.0 mi
- E W of HardinUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- WARECO 233Brownfields · 7.2 mi
- Ayerco #29 Convenience CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fieldon's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Fieldon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fieldon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fieldon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fieldon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fieldon — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (53 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Fieldon
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fieldon average
Your land is one point inside Fieldon
Everything above resolves to Fieldon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 129 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Fieldon Average
Fieldon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fieldon
- ●One soil character for all of Fieldon
- ●Frost dates read at Fieldon's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fieldon's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fieldon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fieldon, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fieldon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fieldon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fieldon average
How we know this about Fieldon
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Fieldon’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Fieldon
When does frost risk typically end in Fieldon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fieldon typically lands around Mar 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 19.
When is the first frost in Fieldon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fieldon typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fieldon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fieldon sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 19, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fieldon?
The federal record around Fieldon is a meaningful one — 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fieldon?
From about Oct 3 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fieldon's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fieldon's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Fieldon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fieldon's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 129 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fieldon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fieldon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 2 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fieldon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fieldon's boundary and the 129 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fieldon's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fieldon checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fieldon's 129 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jersey County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jersey County
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jersey County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fieldon's 129 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fieldon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 129 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Fieldon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisFieldon sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides